Thomas Fleming Day

“ The world which lies
Where human eyes
Are never allowed to see
The gold and gems
And fluted stems
Of the crimson coral tree—
Is that what she sings to me?
She is haunting and holding my heart with a strain,
Where joy lies asleep in the shadow of pain;
And the world that is under the sea
Is spreading its pleasures and treasures to gain
The love that lies dormant in me—
The love that I bear for the sea,
For the secret and sorrowful sea;
Is luring my feet from the gray land again
And filling my soul with the scent of the main,
The sound and the scent of the sea ”

“ Sail over sail they offered
Their canvas to the wind,
That mimicked in its whiteness
The wake they swept behind.
No wonder kingly seamen
Were bred in ships like those;
No wonder that they made them
A terror to their foes.
For in the grace and beauty
They shed upon the sea
Man found the inspiration
That kept him brave and free.
And man and ship together
Played well that noble part,
Until their oaken sides became
[Pg 37]
A symbol for his heart.
But look! where black and formless
Those modern monsters ride
A blot upon the seascape,
A load upon the tide. ”

“ Hurrah for a breeze astern!
And here's to the port we love the best—
The port where the twin-lights burn!
There's many a maid of fashion rare
In warm and palmy lands,
With sea-deep eyes and night-black hair
And brown and shapely hands;
With lips as red as ever led
The heart of a man to roam,
But never one we'd take instead
Of the girl that waits at home. ”

“ A heart-born cry
Of anguish and despair,
Of hope lost in despair.
In speechful grief the old town stands
And beckons with its outstretched hands
As the ships go sailing by.
Long years ago its port was thronged
With many a busy sail,
With rustling sail.
And many a heart has sighed and longed
For that old town's cheery hail—
Has sighed and longed for that old town's welcome hail.
Oh, where are they who left thy port
In strength of youth, in pride of love? ”

“ Will be rent and blown away,
For the weak will never pay
Their earnings to a people who have stamped themselves afraid.
Pull down the selfish wall!
We are not cowards all!
There are some who dare to struggle with the traders of the world.
Cast off the nation's chain,
And give us back the main,
And the flag that's never absent and the sail that's never furled. ”

“ With the canvas in the brails a-tremble to the rolls;
And the ocean is so still
That you wonder if it will
Give back to her who bore them those legions of lost souls.
Sing the sea, sing the ships,
Sing the sea and its ships,
With the forming and the storming
Of the wave athwart their bows;
Sing them when you clear them,
Sing them when you steer them,
For the strength that they have given
And the courage they arouse.
For the nation that forgets them,
For the nation that regrets them,
Is a nation that is dying as the nations all must die ”

“ Of the cheers and the bells to welcome them in—
For the cheers and the bells to welcome them in?
Do their dead hearts know hopes and fears?
Do they dream of the wives they've not seen for years?—
The wives and the sweethearts who watched them thro' tears
Sail away, sail away, when the wind was south
And the bar was blue at the harbor's mouth,
And the gulls flew low like flakes of snow,
And the summer wind bore the heave-yo-ho
Of the sailors brown
[Pg 22]
Into the town?
Are they here, the ones so dear?
Alas! the lips that their lips have known,
Alas! ”

“ To-day is a day asleep.
THE SAILOR OF THE SAIL. I sing the Sailor of the Sail, breed of the oaken heart,
Who drew the world together and spread our race apart,
Whose conquests are the measure of thrice the ocean's girth,
Whose trophies are the nations that necklace half the earth. ”

“ The skipper goes aft to the binnacle, where
He shapes his hand on the compass card,
And takes with a glance the bearing there,
Eying me on the yard.
And I stand with my right arm swinging out,
With a finger true on the dancing speck,
Until on my ears falls the ringing shout:
[Pg 35]
"All right! Lay down on deck!"
AT PORTSMOUTH The great ships in the harbour
Sit silent on the tide,
And in the sea beneath them
Their gloomy shadows ride.
There is no life, no beauty,
No grace the heart can feel,
In those irenic monsters—
Those hideous forms of steel. ”

“ A sullen swell, and white and high
Along the cliffs the breakers fly.
Roar, roar, O Sea! Thy stormy song
Appalls the weak, but nerves the strong.
Look! yonder bark with puffing sail
Has turned her bow to win the sea ”

“ For the breeze
Frets the seas,
And the rim of opal hue
[Pg 81]
Burns a green and flames a blue.
THE OLD BUCCANEER'S SONG. Oh, my heart goes privateering along the Spanish Main,
And I feel the breezes blowing and see those isles again—
Those isles of peace and plenty where we loved to linger long,
To woo the black-eyed Carib maid who sang the rover's song;
Who, resting in the palm shade when the sun was fierce above,
With many a tender measure taught us what indeed is love. ”

“ From voes of Labrador;
Thro' pass and strait, on sound and sea,
From port to port we stand—
The rocks of Race fade on our lee,
[Pg 58]
We hail the Rio Grande.
Our sails are never lost to sight;
On every gulf and bay
They gleam, in winter wind-cloud white,
In summer rain-cloud gray.
We hold the coast with slippery grip;
We dare from cape to cape;
Our leaden fingers feel the dip
And trace the channel's shape.
We sail or bide as serves the tide ”

“ And here's to the girl we love the best—
The girl that we leave at home.
[Pg 115]
THE SPELL OF THE SEA. By the sea I sit and dream
Of things that have passed, and now
Are fading as fades the gleam
Of sail on the ocean's brow,
And I hear that song again
She sang to the world before
Men had crossed her glit'ring plain
To die on the further shore.
'Tis a song that, like the wind
In a stormy counterpart,
Rouses and rolls the restless mind,
Till it breaks against the heart—
Till it hurls its foam amain
On the reefs which gird that lee—
And the heart is swept again ”

“ When the sailing breeze is fair,
And your only thought or care
Is to keep
The sails asleep,
And run,
Until the sun
Drops in the West—
[Pg 113]
Then rest is best.
THE HOMEWARD BOUNDER'S SONG. There's many a ship with taller mast,
There's many of squarer yard,
There's many a one that sails as fast
And many that roll as hard ”

“ That my heart cannot withstand,
So clearly do I foresee
[Pg 117]
That I shall not die on land.
DAYS OF OAK. I. When ship met ship in olden days,
With battle banners flaunting,
From stem to stern the cannon's blaze
A fiery challenge vaunting—
Then man fought man, as brave men should,
To keep those walls of native wood.
II. When broadsides roaring swept the deck,
And crews were madly cheering;
When sail and spar were shot to wreck,
And ships were swiftly nearing;
Then men faced death, as brave men should,
[Pg 118]
Behind their walls of native wood. ”

“ And whose was the hand that bid them burn.
Of the rough hard life the sailor leads,
The pay he gets and the sharks ashore,
And what are the laws our shipping needs,
And the way things went in days of yore.
Of the sailing ship as she yet survives,
Of rigs we never shall see again,
Of inventions that save our seamen's lives
And murder the breed of sailor men.
We talk of these and of many a bout
When a crew came aft for a nasty row—
When loud comes a cry from the fore look-out ”

“ Thrusts out an arm that well defies
The frantic ocean's shock;
And from its point the sunken reef
Runs out a mile or more,
Where many a ship has come to grief
[Pg 120]
When breaking breakers roar.
Long, long ago, in sudden wrath
A storm burst on this land;
It caught a fleet within its path—
An admiral in command.
For three black days they fought the gale,
Then one by one they wore—
And reft of spar and stripped of sail
Went smashing on that shore.
Where red and rough the land-slip beach
Is touched by tiny waves—
Beyond the winter breaker's reach
They dug their shallow graves ”

“ And the sheets and the braces all fast.
From the deck to the truck I pour all my force,
In spanker and jib I am strong;
For I make every course to pull like a horse
And worry the great ship along. ”

“ To whom all things were barter—slaves, spices, gold, and gum;
Who gave his life for glory; who sold his soul for rum—
I sing him, and I see him, as only those can see
Who stake their lives to fathom that solveless mystery ”

“ When those who own and rob him take to the street and frown.
O Sovereign of the Boundless! O Bondsman of the Wave!
Who made the world dependent, yet lived and died a slave.
In Britain's vast Valhalla, where sleep her worst and best—
Where is the grave she made you—your first and final rest—
Beneath no stone or trophy, beneath no minster tower,
Lie those who gave her Empire, who stretched her arm to power.
Below those markless pathways where commerce shapes the trail,
[Pg 68]
Unsung, unrung, forgotten, sleeps The Sailor of The Sail.
THE YACHT. How like a queen she walks the summer sea ”

“ Rippling ropes of amethyst;
Day-star bursting, hotly thirsting,
Drains the fog with fervid lips;
Sunlight flashing shows us dashing
[Pg 55]
Past the port, the town, the ships.
UNKNOWN. Lo! when the sun was half dropt in the west,
As wing-weary sea birds seeking their night-rest,
They drifted in upon the harbor's breast.
None knew from whence they came, or where they sailed;
No betraying pennon from their mastheads trailed ”

“ Sun-touched, her brasses flash on every hand.
Her sheer takes beauty from a golden band,
Which, sweeping aft, is taught to twist and twine
Into a scroll, and badge of quaint design
Hang on her quarters. Insolent and grand
She drives. ”

“ And bring the main-sheet aft.
Rolling the foam up over the rail
She smokes along and flings
A spurt of spray in the curving sail,
[Pg 102]
And plunges and rolls and springs;
For a wild, wet spot is the scuppers' sweep,
As we stand to our knees along—
It's a foot to make and a foot to keep
As we surge to the bullie's song.
Yo ha! Yo ho! Then give her a spill
With a rattle of blocks abaft.
Yo ha! Yo ho! Come down with a will
And bring the main-sheet aft. ”

“ Against the breeze; then rushing back they foam
Along the rail, and swirl into the wake,
And rave astern in many a wrinkled dome.
For thus she doth her windward way betake
[Pg 69]
Like one who lives to conquer and to roam.
THE TRADE-WIND'S SONG. Oh, I am the wind that the seamen love—
I am steady, and strong, and true ”

“ Then with a heart that follows
I turn my eager eyes
To where at honored moorings
The grand old victor lies.
There floats the same proud bunting
She swept along the breeze
The day that France was broken
[Pg 38]
And driven from the seas.
There in prophetic splendor
It crowns her shapely spar,
The promise of a future—
[Pg 39]
The final Trafalgar.
AT ANCHOR. Sights of sail are caught on the edge—
Black coasters waiting the flood ”

“ And the bunting saying good-bye to the watching, waving throng.
Sing them when they need you,
Sing them when they speed you,
With their stems making trouble for the steep Atlantic seas;
When the channel as she rolls
Heaps the foam along the poles,
And the decks fore-and-aft are awash above your knees.
Sing them when they spring you,
[Pg 45]
Sing them when they wing you,
Rolling down the Trades with a breeze that never shifts ”

“ The Trade Wind's Song 69 Execution Rock Light 71 The Cargo Boats 73 Noontide Calm 77 Old Buccaneer's Song 81 The Belfry of the Sea 85 Phantoms 95 Flotsam 98 The Lost Ship 99 The Main Sheet Song 101 The Landfall 103 The Clipper 104 The Constitution 105 The Tartar 107 Warning 110 In September 111 The Homeward Bounder's Song 113 The Spell of the Sea 115 Days of Oak 117 Long, Long Ago 119 Wind Happy Ships 122 The Quest 123
[Pg 9]
THE MERMAID'S SONG.
Oh, what comes flowing over the sea
In the hush of the evening's cool? ”